Head Start Advocates Say Funding Plan Favors Program Growth

Washington--The Department of Health and Human Services' emphasis on
expanding the Head Start program to serve more children will make it
difficult for local grantees to maintain or improve the quality of
current services, Head Start advocates charged last week.

At a news conference organized by the National Head Start
Association here, advocates argued that, by not allocating funds for
across-the-board cost-of-living increases, h.h.s. is sidestepping the
Congress's intent to bolster the quality of local programs.

When the 25-year-old Head Start program was reauthorized last year,
the Congress mandated that the program serve all eligible preschoolers
by 1994. But it also ordered that a portion of new funds be used to
improve existing services, with at least half that allocation reserved
for higher wages and improved employee benefits.

House and Senate authorizing committees stated in their reports that
h.h.s. should continue to provide inflation increases, and that the
funds for quality improvement "will not replace such increases."

In a March 19 memorandum detailing how new funds are to be allocated
to Head Start grantees, h.h.s. did not include inflation increases as a
line item in its instructions.

Head Start funding was raised by $399 million in the current fiscal
year, to $1.95 billion. In addition to the $195 million for quality
improvement and some $45 million for transition projects, parent-child
centers, training, and technical assistance, h.h.s. allocated $159
million of the increase to program expansion. Head Start now serves
540,930 children, about 31 percent of the eligible population,
according to Congressional estimates.

While voicing support for serving more children, Head Start
advocates say h.h.s.'s failure to designate money specifically for
cost-of-living increases will force grantees to use funds intended for
quality improvement to maintain current services.

Don Bolce, the nhsa's director of government affairs, said the
program has "been stretched so far that it is in danger of not being
able to provide the level of services Head Start needs."

"Without provisions for cost-of-living increases, local programs
will be forced to divert funds intended for quality improvements to
offset inflation," said Ron Herndon, president of the National Head
Start Directors Association and the director of a Head Start program in
Portland, Ore.

He also cited a "long-term disregard for the effect of inflation,"
reflected in a 13 percent decline in per-child expenditures from 1981
to 1989.

In a letter to hhs Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, Eugenia Boggus,
president of the n.h.s.a., also argued that, "without cola increases,
Head Start staff will receive only minimal real increases in salaries
from the quality reserve, and no new funds will be available ... to
meet increased costs such as rent, utilities, postage, telephone, and
supplies."

The chairmen of the House and Senate committees and subcommittees
that have jurisdiction over Head Start also urged in a letter to Dr.
Sullivan last month that such considerations be taken into account.

"We share your goal of extending Head Start services to as many
eligible children as possible," the letter said, "but not at the price
of diluting the program's overall quality."

Mr. Herndon said h.h.s's plan "seriously undercuts" efforts to
improve Head Start teachers' salaries, which averaged $11,859 in 1990,
according to the n.h.s.a.

The new aid should be used not only for better wages and benefits,
said Helen Blank, director of child care for the Children's Defense
Fund, but also to train and hire more staff members to work with a
generation of Head Start families plagued by such social ills as drug
abuse and homelessness.

In a written response following the news conference, Dr. Sullivan
called the nhsa's charges "inaccurate and unwarranted," adding that it
is one of the Bush Administration's "top priorities" to maintain the
level and quality of Head Start services while expanding the
program.

Diverting more funds than those already allocated for salary raises
would "eliminate vital opportunities for tens of thousands of more
eligible children," Mr. Sullivan said.

While the hhs plan did not call for "across the board" cola's, he
said, regional Head Start offices will consider them on a case-by-case
basis.

The March 19 hhs memorandum stated that "grantees that can
demonstrate that an adjustment in their regular allocation is needed to
maintain the level of services provided during the previous year may
propose such an adjustment."

Mr. Bolce argued last week that such negotiations "historically have
not worked well" for individual grantees when regional officials are
"under pressure" to increase the number of children served.

The nhsa last week also called for an in-depth review of Head
Start's regional offices, which it said are understaffed and hampered
by inadequate support and training, and which sometimes implement
policies at odds with those set at the federal level.

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